Matt Taylor was impressed with all three of Exeter City’s recent signings that played all 90 minutes of their Premier League Cup win over Dagenham & Redbridge.

The Grecians came from 1-0 down to win 2-1 thank to Matt Jay’s double, with Jayden Stockley, Kyle Edwards and Hiram Boateng playing the entire game.

Edwards and Stockley both set up Jay’s goals and Taylor was impressed with what he saw from the trio.

He said: “I said to Kyle I’ve not seen many as quick as him – I know it was his debut and we were against a young team but he’s a quick, quick lad and he had end product as well.

“We were really pleased with the lads making their debuts and for Kyle to get 90 minutes under his belt and play to that level for that long, for a young lad, that was absolutely excellent.

“It’s testament to Jayden, as he had the option to play and he wanted to play, so he’s not just here to make up the numbers on a Saturday – he wanted to play to get minutes under his belt, which he did do, and he’ll be better for that as he’ll be closer to match fitness on a Saturday.

“He’ll keep improving and the more Paul Tisdale and the coaching staff work with him, he’ll get better and better.

“As for Hiram, he got better as the game wore on as well. He’s probably five to 10 per cent short of where he needs to be for match fitness, in terms of match time he’s had in the last month or so, so games like this moving into the next few weeks will be vitally important for him.”

In terms of the game itself, Taylor felt City improved once they started to use the ball better in the second half.

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“I was delighted with the win,” he said. “I think we all felt in the first half we weren’t quite at our best – fair play to them, they really came at us and messed us around at the back.

“They deservedly went ahead – I know it was a poor goal from our point of view but they deserved to be ahead.

“At half-time we didn’t change too much, we just wanted the boys to get on the ball a little bit more than they had done and be a little bit more confident in possession, which they did do, and I thought the second half performance was excellent.

“It was messy football in the first half, on the back of good, physical and direct play from Dagenham, so we never really got control of the ball and you can’t move yourselves up the pitch if you don’t have controlled possession.

“So in the second half, the back four especially got on the ball and so did Hiram Boateng, which just allowed the rest of the team to get up the pitch and our attacking players to get higher up the pitch.

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City’s first goal came courtesy of a long ball downfield that Stockley flicked on for Jay to finish and Taylor says that was representative of something that could happen in a first-team match.

He said: “Sometimes football is a simple game – you’ve can go route one but it’s effective when you’ve got Jayden and MJ working as a partnership, which is not too different from what we could potentially have in the first team, where you hit the target man and get the bits off of them.

“Like I say, we were able to do that off of more control at the back, which gave us a foothold in the game.

“I can’t ask for anything more in terms of effort from the lads, we just needed a little bit more quality in the first half and a bit more knowhow but they’re a young team and that will come with experience.”